About Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma

Lymphoma is a general term for cancers that develop in the lymphatic system, which is part of the body’s immune system. Hodgkin’s disease is one type of lymphoma. All other lymphomas are grouped together and are called non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. In non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, cells in the lymphatic system become abnormal. They divide and grow without any order or control, or old cells do not die as cells normally do. Because lymphatic tissue is present in many parts of the body, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma can start almost anywhere in the body. Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma may occur in a single lymph node, a group of lymph nodes or in another organ. This type of cancer can spread to almost any part of the body, including the liver, bone marrow and spleen.

Treatment for Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma

There are many differing treatments and treatment combinations for patients with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Treatments include radiation therapy, chemotherapy, immunotherapy and bone marrow/stem cell transplantation. The type of treatment depends on the patient and nature of the illness.

At the Bone Marrow Transplant Center at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, Illinois, patients with relapsed, progressive or high-risk lymphomas who meet specific criteria are treated with autologous stem cell transplantation. Patients with B cell lymphoma (especially follicular lymphoma) are eligible for a transplant that incorporates the use of the new monoclonal antibody Rituxan (this is a form of immunotherapy). This antibody is given to clean the patient’s bone marrow of cancer before the harvest of the blood stem cells and then to help the high-dose therapy rid the body of all remaining lymphoma.

Some patients who are newly diagnosed with lymphoma have certain disease characteristics that put them at high risk of disease relapse with conventional chemotherapy. These patients are eligible for a more aggressive initial approach with high-dose sequential therapy, culminating in autologous stem cell transplantation. This approach decreases the chance of the lymphoma relapsing at a later date.

Patients who have a sibling who shares the same tissue type may have an allogeneic blood stem cell transplant.